I'm Really a Superstar

The next day.

In the morning.

The final game of the battle was looming. It was the third and deciding game of the match between Zhang Ye and Peter. There was still an hour to go before the game would begin. Countless Go players were watching TV, and even many of those who did not know how to play the game were also watching the live broadcast nervously.

However, everyone who was waiting received some bad news first.

In the pregame interview, the Americans suddenly made an announcement.

The American representative faced the camera and said with a smile, "After an entire night of tuning by our technical team, the related bug has been fixed. Furthermore, I have some news that I can reveal to everyone. Our AI has received another round of upgrades, or rather, Peter has always had this function built into it. But due to certain considerations that we had, we did not activate the 'complex operations' mode. After yesterday's game, we admit that we probably did underestimate Professor Zhang. But it won't happen again today as we have configured Peter with a brand-new approach to the game. That Hand of God move from yesterday also won't be unpredictable to Peter. To put it simply, Peter's calculations, analysis, and prediction functions have been raised by around 15% with this new mode activated!"

A reporter asked in surprise, "What are Peter's chances of winning today?"

The American representative said, "We have done some test comparisons of the current version of Peter with its previous one and found that the upgraded Peter has a winning rate of 99.99%!"

Everyone burst into an uproar!

"Upgrade?"

"What?"

"What the fuck, it can still be upgraded?"

"And its level was raised by this much?"

"All this just to deal with Zhang Ye?"

"That's so evil! Why didn't they make this announcement yesterday? They're only saying this just as the game is about to start? Are they trying to catch Professor Zhang off guard?"

"Is this for real?"

"Then won't we lose for sure?"

"Yeah, Zhang Ye only won that game yesterday with some luck!"

The Internet was abuzz!

The Qiyuan's people were panicking as well!

Immediately, the news reports on TV were filled with talk of Peter's upgrade!

At China Qiyuan.

Dan Donghe, Wu Changhe, and the others went looking for Zhang Ye!

Hu Liang said anxiously, "Professor Zhang, have you seen the news?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I did."

Dan Donghe said with a sunken expression, "About the upgrade, what do they exactly mean by that?"

They were not in this field, so they did not understand how it worked.

"To put it plainly, they've just delimited a part of Peter's functionality." Zhang Ye explained to them, "It's just like a computer, where the performance of a processor is usually not pushed to the extreme. The designers will deliberately limit its functionality to ensure that it can last longer while maintaining a reasonable performance. To surpass that limit, they can choose to overclock it, which is what the Americans are doing right now. Although it is much more complicated for an AI to be 'overclocked,' the principle is essentially the same."

Wu Changhe asked in annoyance, "Would its performance really be raised by 15%?"

"Probably so, but who knows if it's the truth or not since it's the Americans talking." Zhang Ye shrugged and continued, "They might be trying to scare me, but it could easily be true."

Scare you?

How could that be possible!

No one believed this to be the reason as they understood things. Even if the Americans were not familiar with you, they would surely have researched you online, no? Did you think that they wouldn't go around to find out about you? They could've easily pulled anyone in the whole of China aside and still managed to find out that you, Teacher Zhang, have never been afraid of anything! Piloting a plane, beating up an executive, scolding the SARFT, which of those affairs did not involve you?

Li Yi 9-dan said loudly, "We have to treat it as a serious claim!"

"Yeah!" Chen Ying came over. "We can't underestimate our opponent, Professor Zhang!"

Wu Changhe tugged at him. "If it's really as the Americans claim, and that P-whatever thingy's performance was indeed raised by 15%, then how sure are you of beating it?"

Zhang Ye laughed. "I'll find out when I play it."

Xu Han didn't know how to react. "Aren't you being too carefree!"

Hu Liang said, "Yeah, Professor Zhang. You have to at least give me some assurance!"

Zhang Ye spread his hands up and said, "It's not that I don't want to commit to an answer. The issue is that I don't even which area of Peter's functionality has been 'overclocked.' Did they increase its analysis speed? Or did they increase the analysis power? Without playing against it, how am I supposed to answer you? So let me play against it first."

Liu Hong 9-dan said nervously, "You can do it!"

"Yeah, you can do it!"

"Professor Zhang, show us the elegance you displayed yesterday!"

"The honor of the Go world is in your hands!"

Everyone was shouting encouragement to him.

Only Wu Changhe knew what was really going on. What honor of the Go world? What dignity of humanity? All of that is just bullshit. This rascal is only doing this for my daughter. So Wu Changhe looked at Zhang Ye and said, "Kid, if you win this game, I'll organize a celebratory feast for you at my house tonight!"

At that, Zhang Ye became more spirited. "Alright."

Li Qinqin had a better way with words. "Even if you lose, you can come over."

Zhang Ye was just about to say OK.

But Wu Changhe grunted, "What's the point of coming over if he loses!"

Dan Donghe did not know of the deal between Zhang Ye and the Wu family, so he said in a speechless manner, "Brother Wu, why are you such a snob? You won't even treat him? If you're not treating, then I'll do it!" He turned to Zhang Ye and said, "Professor Zhang, no matter what the result is, I'll hold a feast for you tonight. Don't bother with going over to his place!"

Zhang Ye smiled but did not say anything.

Wu Changhe rolled his eyes. Don't go to my place and go to yours? You'd need to have a daughter as pretty as mine first!

It was almost time.

Chen Ying had already headed into the commentary booth.

Zhang Ye exhaled and stepped forward to graciously enter the battle. He had rejected the pregame interview today, so he only entered the game room after the media had left. He knew that there was no point in making any extravagant claims for this game. They'd have to decide things with their actions to determine who would win and lose!

The referees were standing by.

The Americans watched as Zhang Ye entered the room and showed a hint of fear at his arrival. Admittedly, they had been boasting a little about Peter in the interview. All they said about Peter's upgrade or his chances of victory were just empty talk for now. When faced with the only person that had won against Peter, they had to be very careful. He was the reason why they had made an exception and taken the risk to upgrade Peter. That was also their affirmation for the smartest person in the world! They no longer had that unshakable confidence from before and were afraid that Peter would lose again!

Zhang Ye sat down again today in front of the computer as he took control of the mouse.

The broadcast cut to the live commentary coverage.

Yu Yingyi was dressed fully in red today, with a very joyous and celebratory feel. It was as though she was openly making known her hopes of humanity winning today's game.

Yu Yingyi had become very popular recently due to this important event in the world of Go. The originally niche strategy board game TV show had started to gain a following from all over Asia. This went on until China Qiyuan announced that Zhang Ye would be representing humanity to challenge the AI, which caused the show to blow up even more. Even Yu Yingyi, who was just a sports host, had her value rise along with the attention gained. A lot of people had only gotten to know her through this war between humans and machines. Then they also found out that she was an old classmate of Zhang Ye's from college. With Zhang Ye being so popular and famous these days, everyone in the entire country know him. Perhaps it was just a case of "love me, love my dog," but Zhang Ye's fans were very supportive of Yu Yingyi. With that, her career officially went on the rise as well!

Yu Yingyi smiled. "Hello, everyone."

Chen Ying looked perturbed as she forced a smile and said, "Hello, everyone."

Yu Yingyi said, "In another five minutes, the third game of the war between humans and machines will begin. Yesterday's game was wonderful to watch. That Hand of God is probably still replaying in many of our minds, and a lot of people are pinning their hopes on Professor Zhang's performance today. But before the game was scheduled to begin, we received news that Peter received an upgrade to its functionality. The Americans claim that Peter's functionality has been raised to the max that will allow its thought process to work in a more encompassing way?"

Chen Ying took over and said, "Yes, and that's one of the highlights of today's game. Earlier, in the waiting room, I asked Professor Zhang what this upgrade really meant. Professor Zhang used the term 'overclocking' to describe it to me." She made a simple explanation before going on to say, "As for how much Peter has improved as a result of its upgrade, we do not know yet. We can only analyze it slowly as the game progresses. Then, for the second highlight of this game, it'll be whether Professor Zhang is going to come up with yet another new playstyle. In yesterday's game, Professor Zhang surprised everyone by playing the self-named 'Apollo Opening' and the 'Cosmic Style' to achieve an effective result. It fired up those of us watching. I wonder if Professor Zhang can reproduce that blitzing form again today!"

Three.

Two.

One.

The international referee gestured.

Yu Yingyi said loudly, "We can see now that the game has started. Peter is playing Black today and will go first."

Chen Ying said in worry, "Professor Zhang is playing as White and going second. In the opening, there's a chance that he might be pulled into Peter's rhythm, so it will be very difficult to play in the manner he did yesterday."

Yu Yingyi stared at the screen and said, "Peter made a move very quickly."

Zhang Ye responded very quickly as well.

After four moves, an opening had formed on the board.

Chen Ying explained, "Peter is playing very steadily. This is one of the conventional openings for Black and also one that has the highest rate of winning. Its attacking game is very strong and belongs to one of the more aggressive openings. It looks like Peter is planning to end this quickly? How will Professor Zhang reply?"

Hearing this, the home viewers became even more worried!

Today's viewership rating on Central TV Sports Channel was heaven defying. After yesterday's victory, today's viewership rating nearly doubled. It wasn't only Zhang Ye's close friends and relatives, but also those who played Go who tuned in to watch. Even the crosstalk actor, Tang Dazhang, and Zhang Ye's other longtime foes could not help but watch the live broadcast!

All the Go clubs in the country were packed to the brim with people!

Millions and millions of people turned their attention to this remarkable battle!

At the venue.

Both sides had already played six moves each. Things were not too intense yet, nor did the board state become complex. It would be considered a very normal opening. However, that was where the normality stopped.

Zhang Ye looked at the board and thought for a time. Then he grinned.

Upgraded version?

Just what was being upgraded in you? I'll test you out!

He clicked the mouse and immediately created a " large knight's move enclosure 1 " with his stone.

Chen Ying was slightly startled. "You don't see this move too often."

Yu Yingyi was taken aback. "Was that not a good move?"

Chen Ying stared at it for a very long time. "It's not that it's not good. But there doesn't seem to be a very clear intent to have a 'large knight's move enclosure' over there. I'm not sure what Professor Zhang is considering."

The board state in the bottom corner suddenly turned complex!

A white stone on the 5-3 point?

A black stone on 4-3 for a corner approach?

The white stones that created a large knight's move enclosure?

Although there were only three stones, there was something odd about it!

…

In the spectator room.

Everyone was watching in shock and surprise!

Hu Liang asked, "Why did he make that move?"

Xu Han blinked and said, "What is Professor Zhang planning now?"

"Who knows what he's thinking?" Wu Changhe was not happy with the move. "He clearly could've gone for a better joseki than that. Why didn't he choose to use the '3-1 joseki' or a 'knight's move approach'?"

Xiang Rong 9-dan suddenly said, "He seems to be testing the computer."

"Testing?"

"Professor Zhang, don't play with fire again!"

"Aiyo, why am I trembling so much just from watching this?"

"What is Professor Zhang trying to do?"

Many people could not understand Zhang Ye's move. It couldn't be called bad, but neither was it that good. Everyone felt that Zhang Ye's large knight's move enclosure was very strange!

However, Zhang Ye was still beaming.

At the next second, countless people watching the game on TV and those from the Qiyuan all froze. Peter had actually fallen silent. It did not respond even after a very long time!

Chen Ying 7-dan asked curiously, "Eh, what's with Peter?"

Dan Donghe said, "What's going on?"

A professional 5th dan player asked, "Why is it not playing?"

Li Qinqin did not quite understand either. "Is that move so difficult to handle?"

The Americans were also taken aback!

Zhang Ye looked at the computer screen as his eyes narrowed. Peter's silence had given Zhang Ye a sort of answer. It was indeed very strong. So it did sense that something was wrong, eh?

Hur hur.

You must not have seen this way of playing before, right?

Let me tell you what this is called then. It's called the " Great Slant Joseki 2

."

In my previous world, this was one of the three most complex josekis to play!